Maroons exact revenge on Chargers
Apr. 23—CHAMPAIGN — Champaign Central's baseball team extracted a measure of revenge on Monday night.
Three days removed from a loss to Centennial on their home field, the Maroons bounced back with a 9-5 victory on the Chargers' turf that was ignited by four runs apiece in the second and third innings.
"It was really kind of a tale of two games," Central coach John Staab said. "We really played as well as we have all year in the first half of that game (on Friday night, a 9-6 loss), and then kind of the same things in the second half."
"Give Centennial credit, they battled back. Our inability to sustain focus for any length of time has been our bugaboo this year."
Chris Timmons and T.J. Pipkins led the Maroons (12-10) with two hits apiece; Timmons doubled twice while Pipkins notched a double and a single under the lights.
"Those two guys are seniors, three- and four-year starters so you expect that," Staab said. "What was impressive about those guys is they didn't go up there trying to pull the baseball. We've tried to preach (the) middle of the field and those two guys certainly buy in more times than not."
Centennial (2-11-1) plated four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to whittle the deficit to 9-4 courtesy a bases-loaded walk from Jeremiah Thompson that scored Chris Miller, a wild pitch that plated Griffin Goddard and a single from Tate Sauer that drove in Thompson and Ty Hunt.
But four strikeouts from Soogyeom Park held the door shut over the final two innings and helped the Maroons clinch their sixth win in seven games.
"If you compare it to last Friday's game, we just didn't get off to a hot start," Chargers coach Vince Perri said. "The bats were really cold to start. ... We got behind early and it was just too deep a hole to climb out of."
